Wales Lacking Strong Leadership Reveals Survey

Considerable dissatisfaction with the quality of leadership in Wales has been expressed by respondents to the Wales Leadership Survey conducted in partnership betwen the Leading Wales Awards and Cardiff Metropolitan University (Cardiff Met).

The online survey that was undertaken in December last year revealed that respondents struggled to name Welsh leaders with only 50% being able to name two or more. In addition, almost 40% said they were very dissatisfied with the performance of their own business leaders including their decision-making and general leadership skills.

Aneurin Bevan and former Leading Wales Award recipient, Rhodri Morgan, were named as the two top Welsh leaders. However, disappointingly, no Welsh person made it into the list of top ten world leaders which was headed by Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.Not one Welsh woman made it into the top ten Welsh leaders and only Margaret Thatcher made it to number 6 of the top 10 world leaders.

Of resonance to the rest of the UK, 60% are in agreement that management and leadership skills development is very important to the overall success of an organisation. The responses indicated that 85% of businesses have training budgets in place, and over 93% clearly recognise a need for skills development as a major part of organisational success. It would be hoped that these figures would be duplicated across the UK as they are encouraging in the current economic climate

Respondents were split on the question of whether leaders are born or made with 55% voting for leaders being made. The values we rate most in our leaders: vision, inspiration, communication, integrity and passion.